This invention relates to spray nozzles, and in particular to a spray nozzle bottle cap for the metered mixing and dispensing of a concentrated carried fluid from the bottle with a primary carrier fluid via a secondary carrier fluid.
Spray nozzles for mixing a concentrated carried fluid with a carrier fluid are known. These devices often include their own reservoir for the carried fluid and are usually adapted to be connected to a garden hose to mix and dispense the carried fluid with water. Such devices are widely used to apply fertilizers, fungicides, insecticides, toxicants, soaps, detergents, and numerous other solutions.
Many of the nozzles are complex and include large number of parts. Consequently these nozzles are relatively expensive, and generally too expensive to be considered disposable. Because of the toxicity of some of the chemicals dispensed and because the complex nozzles can be difficult to clean, a household might have several different nozzle devices for the various different chemicals used around the house. This is expensive and can present difficulties in storing the equipment safely and securely.
The inventor has previously invented a spray nozzle bottle cap which is disclosed in his prior U.S. Pat. No. 3,897,004. This prior spray nozzle was a significant improvement over the available nozzles because it was a very simple one-piece nozzle that was inexpensive enough to provide as a disposable bottle cap. The inventor's prior nozzle thus provided a readily available, easy to use nozzle that eliminated the cleaning and storage problems of the more complicated prior nozzle devices. The nozzle made a variety of common chemical products inexpensively accessible to any household, even to those without spray equipment.
The inventor's prior nozzle, although a significant improvement over the available nozzles, required some precision in manufacture to ensure proper alignment and contact between the stream of carrier fluid and the passageway supplying the carried fluid. This required precision increased the cost of the device. One other disadvantage was that the nozzle had no means for shutting off the flow through the nozzle.